Friday, May 22, 2015

Military courts as instrument of repression in Thailand

From Human Rights Watch's one-year-down report on Thailand under the junta:

Military courts have generally imposed harsher sentences in lèse majesté cases than had the civilian courts. Penal Code article 112 provides for imprisonment of 3 to 15 years for lèse majesté crimes. Previously, civilian courts often sentenced a guilty person to 5 years per count. But since the coup, military courts have often delivered harsher sentences. In the case against a Red Shirts blogger, Thiansutham Suttijitseranee (known as “Yai Daengduad”), the Bangkok Military Court sentenced him to 10 years per count. For his five alleged lèse majesté Facebook postings, Thiansutham received 50 years in prison, later reduced to 25 years when he pleaded guilty. Human Rights Watch is unaware of any longer sentence under article 112.